On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 12:22:25AM -0800, Johann Bach wrote:

On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 11:57 PM, Johann Bach wrote:

...

Hello list, I am a programmer who just got laid off. I have been studying Haskell and learning a lot about CS, *as a hobby*.

Oh, I just thought of one answer to my own question--- get a good score on the CS GRE. Can I get some comments as to how much that counts toward a strong application?

It definitely counts; in particular I think a good score on the CS GRE coupled with a compelling essay (which explained your situation) would make up for the lack of CS on your undergrad transcript. The recommendations could be more of a problem since those generally carry a good deal of weight. Perhaps you can think creatively about recommenders who could speak to your curiosity, self-motivation, work ethic, and other qualities that would make you a good researcher, even if they can't specifically speak to your qualifications in CS. If you think you would do well in a graduate program in CS, then you are probably right: your task now is to think creatively about how to prove it to others, given the constrained medium of the grad school application. Best of luck (and I will insert here a little plug for the programming languages group at U Penn, which is fantastic =) -Brent